4.  The applicant was born in 1934 and lives in Vologda, the Vologda Region.
5.  The applicant is a former military officer. He brought a claim against the Vologda Regional Military Service Commissariat (“the Commissariat”), seeking recalculation of his pension on account of increase of daily allowances due to servicemen of the military units belonging to the nuclear weapons complex of the Russian Federation.
6.  On 12 May 2003 the Vologda Town Court of the Vologda Region granted his claim and held that the Commissariat should increase his pension on account of an increase of the official salary rate with the multiplier of 1.5 as from 1 January 2001, and also pay him the arrears for the period from 1 January 2001 to 30 April 2003.
7.  The Commissariat did not file an ordinary appeal and the judgment became binding and enforceable ten days later.
8.  While the judgment was in force the Commissariat paid to the applicant 39,171.16 Russian roubles (RUB) in respect of increased pension and arrears for the period from 1 January 2001 to 30 September 2003.
9.  On 22 October 2003 the Commissariat filed an application for supervisory review of the judgment of 12 May 2003 referring to the lack of grounds in domestic law for increasing the applicant’s pension.
10.  On 19 November 2003 a judge of the Vologda Regional Court ordered the case to be sent for examination by the Presidium of the Vologda Regional Court.
11.  On 8 December 2003 the Presidium of the Vologda Regional Court quashed the judgment of 12 May 2003 and rejected the applicant’s initial claim on the ground that the Town Court’s findings had been premised on an incorrect application of substantive law. In particular, the Presidium found that the Town Court had examined all the relevant circumstances of the case, but incorrectly applied the multiplier of 1.5 in the applicant’s case. The court found that the applicant’s unit could not be considered as belonging to the nuclear weapons complex of Russia, because it had been discontinued before the list of such units had been established in the respective Decree of the Russian Government.
12.  The applicant subsequently attempted to challenge the judgment of 8 December 2003 by lodging an application for its supervisory review with the Supreme Court of the Russian Federation. On 30 September 2004 the Supreme Court rejected his application.
13.  At some point the Commissariat claimed return of the amount paid in execution of the judgment of 12 May 2003, referring to the fact that the judgment had been quashed by way of the supervisory review proceedings. The applicant contested the request for repayment on the ground that the sums already paid represented compensation for health damage which, once paid, could not be recovered in accordance with the domestic law.
14.  On 22 January 2004 the Vologda Town Court dismissed the applicant’s argument on the ground that the amount to be returned had been paid in respect of pension, not compensation for health damage. The court granted the Commissariat’s application and ordered the applicant to return RUB 39,171.16 to the Commissariat.
15.  On 20 February 2004 the Vologda Regional Court upheld the judgment on appeal.
16.  In 2005 the applicant’s military unit was added to the list of the units belonging to the nuclear weapons complex of Russia, in accordance with the Decree no. 949 of 9 August 2005 by the President of the Russian Federation. In March 2007 the Commissariat recalculated the applicant’s pension and increased it with the multiplier of 1.5, as from 1 January 2005.
17.  The applicant brought a separate set of proceedings against the Commissariat for increase of his pension. He claimed index-linking of the monetary compensation instead of uncollected food allowance, which constituted a part of his pension, and arrears for the period from 1 January 2000 to 30 June 2005.
18.  On 26 August 2005 the Vologda Regional Court rejected the claim in the final instance.